


A God Somewhere

by CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines



Category: Warhammer 40.000
Genre: Other, Religious Beliefs, faith - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:01:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26036098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines/pseuds/CaptainOfTheKryptonSpacemarines
Summary: A Fire Cast commander learns the meaning of the deepest-held belief in The Imperium of Man
Kudos: 15





	A God Somewhere

The sirens blare and we make ready to sally out and meet them.

We’ve been preparing for this moment since they made their presence known in this world –The Kor’vattra had not reported any activity on their end until suddenly cities were being raised to the ground- and ever since my instincts warned me of something that bode poorly about the coming battle.

I have seen war before; it’s unlike me to feel this unease.

I’ve faced the enemy, this enemy, before and the fact some of them now serve under me makes no difference to me: If they’re here, they’ve proven themselves and I shall lead them like I’d lead any other kind of warrior.

But the feeling bites at the back of my head, my heart pulsing as if I was in the midst of battle already, and my hands shake as I check my equipment before leaving the small safe haven that is the bunker system in which we will fight and vanquish the enemy.

‘I am ready’ I tell myself, ignoring the pulsing twists at the pit of my stomach that are ever-present in the eve of battle, but this time they’re joined by this new, unpleasant sensation that something is not right.

I turn around and see the Gue’vesa kneeling; all of them have their hands over their chests, their thumbs intertwined and their fingers sprayed out to simulate the wings of a creature none in this room have ever seen.

‘ _The sign of the Aquila-_ ’ I remember being explained when talked about the possible oddities that the Gue’vesa would bring along with them ‘ _The Gue’la believe that their ruler is a God who protects them from harm, either physical or spiritual, and they call upon him for strength and deliverance_ ’.

I try to be respectful as they mutter their words of reverence to a God somewhere so far that their ancestors were abandoned here when they couldn’t defeat the Tau’va.

They’re scared, of me and of the enemy we’re about to face, and for a moment it looks like one of them thinks I’ll shoot her, for she starts speaking fast –faster than I’ve ever heard them speak their language- and the grip on my weapon tightens at the tempting thought of shooting them to see if their God comes out of somewhere and spares them.

Impatience burns in me, stoked to a firestorm inside me by this nauseating feeling of dread that plagues me, and they look at me out of the corner of their eyes with fear as they try to rush their rituals.

They rise when they’re finished and I reckon enough words have been said between the lot of them to spare us of speeches for the rest of our lives.

I lead them out, we move through the trenches and defenses with practiced ease but I can’t help but notice as we go that the sirens either didn’t warned us as far ahead as expected or the prayers took far longer than I thought they had for there’s already carnage in our lines.

I don’t recognize what sort of weapon could’ve done to my brethren what I’m seeing and I block it out when a Gue’vesa vomits and I feel tempted to join him in the act.

We reach our positions and the sight…

_What is that?_

These aren’t Gue’la.

These are…what are these?

Tentacles and rot.

Pestilence and death, walking hand in hand with creatures that are clearly not of the natural realm, for nothing under any star could’ve evolved naturally to be like that.

I hear more utterances and as we fire onto these things, I notice the Gue’vesa are inflamed with something I know is not bravery but still is something akin to will.

They don’t stop.

We make them feel the wrath of our weapons and they don’t stop. Nothing seems to.

They act like nothing affects them, barrages of artillery that would’ve broken entire Gue’la regiments being to them like a breeze is to a rock.

Their weapons kill, but the death they bring is not a death of fire and blood, instead it is one of putrid horror and rotten smells that break our regiment before an hour has passed.

We run, the ones that aren’t too frozen by fear do so anyway, and I for one can’t comprehend what this is.

This isn’t a rout.

These aren’t Gue’la

This is some horror that the old in primitive cultures use to scare their young, some horror to explain the irrational fear of the dark; some horror that simply cannot, should not be.

This isn’t a rout; this is the birth of a planet-wide defeat.

These aren’t Gue’la, these are creatures outside of what the Tau’va can explain. Monsters outside our science or philosophies that seek carnage that not even the Gue’Ron’Sha could stop.

In the following hours, as we make out way back to a mechanized regiment that I desperately hope is still there, I witness a Gue’vesa being eaten by flying pestilence, another die from the bite of some flesh-horror that melts his body in mere seconds and several of them just falling to madness and despair.

 _‘What God, in that forsaken somewhere the Gue’vesa call The Golden Throne of Terra, lets this happen?’_ I ask myself as each new calamity strikes us and takes more and more of my troops to their graves.

In the end, it’s not the mechanized regiment who saves us but rather some other race: Tall and slender, with an indescribable grace about them; accompanied by a few Gue’la who bear a skullish sigil that breaks what will other survivors had.

They, and only they who bear the sigil the Gue’vesa fear, raise their guns at us all and suddenly shoot behind us at some flesh-horror that is more of an eye on two legs than a creature of flesh and sense.

“The Emperor Protects” one of them says relieved, and suddenly I can’t agree more.

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!


End file.
